arkadianriverFlowing creativity &#x2192; Cascading blisshttp://arkadianriver.com/
Sat, 06 Jan 2018 18:28:08 -0800Sat, 06 Jan 2018 18:28:08 -0800Jekyll v3.4.3Sunshine and weekends!<h2 id="update">Update</h2>
<p>This initial experiment with the 28-hour day ran for just under 16 weeks. I’m
stopping during the Spring and Summer to enjoy the sun during the weekends.
But, it worked so well for me that I intend to start it up again in the Fall.</p>
<h2 id="lessons-learned">Lessons learned</h2>
<p>The sleep time is awesome. Thursday mornings are the only days I woke with an
alarm clock because that was the only day where work started within 2 hours
after waking. I would usually sleep 8-9 hours without an alarm, but every 10
days or so my body seemed to need an extra 2-3 hours of sleep.</p>
<p>That leads to the next point, which is that you don’t really get full value
from that extra 8 hours of wake time per week. If you consider the hour before
bedtime when you’re starting to feel exhausted and winding down, you don’t
gain much time at all. That said, these extra hours weren’t the primary reason
for this, only an assumed benefit. The primary reason was to actually feel
tired before going to bed to get a full night’s rest. Mission accomplished.</p>
<p>Do you have pets? I have two cats. Yeah, they never got used to the schedule.
No matter what my sleep schedule is or how it interferes with theirs, they
expect to get fed the same time every day. Two days out of the week I’d need
to feed them early, right before I’d go to bed, to make sure my sleep wouldn’t
get rudely interrupted by hungry cats. =^.^= =^.^=</p>
<p>The work benefits, however, met all expectations:</p>
<ul>
<li>That Friday off. All exempt employees should have Fridays off, because we know
how many extra hours we put in. Having it as part of your schedule ensures
you take it.</li>
<li>Much uninterrupted time during the wee hours. Productivity during that time
more than makes up for the Friday off. I can honestly say I got more done in
40 hours than a standard 50 hour week because of my smaller interruption window.</li>
<li>No need to check calendar EOD Friday or stress during the weekend, because my
Monday commitments were far past my arrival time.</li>
<li>Easy to connect with colleagues around the world.</li>
</ul>
<p>One drawback is when you <em>do</em> require input from other local colleagues.
There’s always something else to do, but this drawback is particularly annoying
when you need just one decision to be made at 3 a.m. so that you could work
until 8 a.m. to finish the project, especially when you’re motivated to get
that particular project done before all other ones.</p>
<p>An annoying non-work-related thing would be when an errand I forgot to take
care of would pop into my head at 3 a.m. on a Saturday morning. I would need
to schedule it the following Tuesday or Friday when stores are open and I’m
not working. In other words, this schedule worked well for me in all respects
except when I’d need to coordinate some activities where other people are
involved. Fridays and Saturdays weren’t always sufficient. This is perhaps the
main negative comment that everyone who’s tried this has stated, that the rest
of the world isn’t on their same schedule. Although I do like that I don’t get
interrupted at work as often, I don’t like that I can’t go shopping whenever I
want.</p>
<p>But, all-in-all, I’ve enjoyed it and plan to do it again. For now, I’ll take
the time to enjoy the sun on the weekends and spend more evenings out. Now that
I’ve learned of f.lux (and melatonin if necessary), I’m hoping to be able to
wind down okay after being awake only 16 hours. The 24-hour day—my next
experiment.</p>
Tue, 03 May 2016 00:00:00 -0700http://arkadianriver.com/topics/28-hour-days/28hr-update.html
http://arkadianriver.com/topics/28-hour-days/28hr-update.htmltopics28-hour-daysDITA production (multi-department)<h4 id="summary">Summary</h4>
<p>Since 2011, I’ve been on small team that develops and maintains the
documentation production environment for products in the Analytics,
Commerce, and Systems groups. I now lead the team of 3 developers
and 5 other contributors, releasing refreshes every few weeks to keep
up with the changes in corporate documentation management strategies.</p>
<p>Brett Johnson started and initially led the group. Previously, he contributed
to the documentation build and test system I had set up for our particular
product. When he left the product team he was able to rally support and
work on this common production system for the entire lab. Knowing the quality
of my work, he invited me to help develop the new system, which I had done
part-time until mid-2015 when I became lead.</p>
<p><a href="http://mrscripter.com/2013/02/cakephp-dita-and-continuous-integration/" target="_blank">Brett does a great job describing the system in detail</a>.</p>
<p>Until I became lead, my major contribution to the system was the translation
component, from packaging and sending to receiving and testing to deployment.</p>
<p>My most recent major development contributions:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>A SOAP API to request and receive data from the central translation planning system,
to more effectively drive the automated workflow used for local planning, processing
of packages, and testing.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>A basic REST API to enable our new additional translation servers to communicate with our main
translation server, and the automated workflow that ensures the correct server handles
the request.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>An installable package of the system for distribution to teams in other organizations.
This work also contributed to my streamlining of the update process on our own five
servers, easing our more frequent deployments.</p>
</li>
</ul>
Fri, 25 Mar 2016 00:00:00 -0700http://arkadianriver.com/works/dita-production-web-app.html
http://arkadianriver.com/works/dita-production-web-app.htmlPHPCakePHPMySQLjQueryAntSOAPAgileLeadershipworksearthTV cam<div id="wrap2">
<div class="responsive">
<iframe id="player1" class="earthtvplayer" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen="true" src="http://playercdn.earthtv.com?autoplay=true&amp;loop=true&amp;hd=true&amp;height=720&amp;limit=20&amp;channel=Latest&amp;token=5908831fbbf04754e8008a77" datafallback="?autoplay=true&amp;loop=true&amp;hd=true&amp;height=720&amp;limit=20&amp;channel=BestOf&amp;location_id=BER&amp;token=5908831fbbf04754e8008a77"></iframe>
<!-- &location_id=BER -->
<!--
<iframe id="player2" class="earthtvplayer" frameBorder="0"
webkitallowfullscreen="true" mozallowfullscreen="true" allowfullscreen="true"
src="http://playercdn.earthtv.com?autoplay=true&channel=live&live=true&location_id=BER&token=5908831fbbf04754e8008a77&livesd=http://www.earthtv.com/en/program/the-world-live"></iframe>
-->
</div>
</div>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.earthtv.com">EarthTV</a> has some high quality
cameras around the world. Enjoy. Now that they have live feeds, I’ll hopefully
redo my script that flips through their locations every 5 minutes to keep it on a
sunny part of the world at all times.
But, they’ve since changed to a new player and I haven’t updated the script yet.
This is their main feed that shows highlights throughout the day, which is cool,
too. Along with <a target="_blank" href="http://www.earthtv.com">earthTV</a>, two
other sites,
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.earthcamtv.com/index.php">EarthCamTV.com</a> and
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.citycams.tv/en/">CityCams.tv</a>,
helped me during those nights I wanted to stay awake.</p>
Mon, 22 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0800http://arkadianriver.com/topics/earthtv.html
http://arkadianriver.com/topics/earthtv.htmlfeaturedtopics28-Hour Days<p>If you’re interested in doing this, <a href="index.html#tips">see some tips</a> at the end of
this article.</p>
<h2 id="why-the-heck">Why the heck…?</h2>
<p>During a typical day, my normal bed time would be about 2 a.m. I’d be hacking away
at the computer and just wouldn’t get tired before midnight at the earliest.
That is, until the next day, because I’d force myself out of bed to work,
leaving little time for sleep. It was a frustrating schedule.</p>
<p>Wouldn’t it be nice, I thought, if I could stay awake 20 hours, sleep a
full 8 hours, then stay awake another 20? But there just aren’t 28 hours in a
day. Or are there?</p>
<p>Brain starts calculating… Whaddaya know, 28-hour days fit perfectly into a
week. Only <em>six</em> 28-hour days, mind you, but still a regular schedule.
Calculates again… tick, tick, what’s this? Even with just six 28-hour days,
you still get an extra 8 hours of wake time per week! (6x20 &gt; 7x16) This is
awesome! Heck, if it turns out I need 9 hours of sleep with this schedule, I’d
still get an extra 2 hours of wake time a week.</p>
<p>Now, how can I make this work? How can I nudge the hours around so that I can
swing a schedule where I’m awake the same time as other folks at work? I
get out the spreadsheet, draw a week of 24 hour days, and start shifting
hours.</p>
<p>I live on the west coast, but work with people around the world. It turns out,
if I start my week on Sundays at 6 p.m. (first time waking up during the
week), I can work east coast hours on Mondays and Tuesdays and west coast
hours Wednesdays and Thursdays. Fridays are kind of hosed though. But if I
work 10 hours a day Mon-Thu, I could take Fridays off. Our lab has kind of a
half-day Friday policy anyway. Hmm….</p>
<p>I typically need to work more than 40 hours a week. I’m in the software
industry and we all know how that is. Well, with this new schedule, there are
plenty of hours where I can write code while few others are awake. This could
be a great advantage. I choose to give myself an extra five hours of work time
on “Mondays” (Sunday night) and come up with this 45 hour a week schedule.</p>
<!-- <div style="width:85%;" id="sleepshift"></div> -->
<iframe width="100%" height="690px" src="/unique/sleepshift/index.html"></iframe>
<p>I finally search the web and discover, wow, I’m not alone. Many have
considered or tried this schedule, and most with the same reasoning as me.
This <a href="https://xkcd.com/320/">xkcd comic</a> even has the same hours, which is odd,
since Randall Munroe lives in Massachusetts. But, from what I read, most
have since abandoned the idea. I’m still determined to try it.</p>
<h2 id="giving-it-a-go">Giving it a go</h2>
<p>Eager to get started, I tell folks at work—who are skeptical, but
otherwise have no problem with my schedule. Software companies are pretty
flexible with work hours as long as we get the job done well. And with my
role in globalization, my hours on Mondays and Tuesdays allow me to interact
with folks not only on the east coast, but also in Europe and India. And my
late hours Wednesdays and Thursdays put me in touch with folks in China and
Japan. It used to be that being on the west coast put me at a disadvantage in
this role because most of the world is off work during west coast hours.</p>
<p>So, Thursday, 14 January 2016, I start the experiment.</p>
<p>Thursdays and Fridays are pretty normal schedules, so those first two days are no problem.
That first weekend is rough, however. I don’t prepare for getting good sleep
during the day as I should. Also, I notice that my body is waking
up 4 hours early, as if it adjusts to wake the same time as the previous day.
<a name="tips"></a>
Not good, and that first Monday at 9 a.m. I’m about ready to collapse.
I must fix this.</p>
<h2 id="making-it-worktips">Making it work—<em>Tips</em></h2>
<p>So near the end of that first week, I dedicate myself to doing a better job
next time. And I do.</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>On the nights I’m awake, I find webcams throughout the world
that I can tune into and leave full screen on one of the monitors. Along
with the <i><a href="http://www.verilux.com/light-therapy-lamps/" target="_blank">Happy Light</a></i> that I already have (because I live in Seattle)
the webcams help keep me going. I feel like I’m not alone in the world,
seeing folks bustling around in the streets of London.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>On the days I’m sleeping, I take 3 mg of melatonin right before bed.
That’s a big help! Thanks for the tip,
<a href="http://www.limedaring.com/articles/hacking-your-week-the-28-hour-day" target="_blank">Tracy Osborn</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>An hour before bedtime, I do two things:</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>Music goes from amped trance or metal to
<a href="http://www.pandora.com/station/3023974434785807708" target="_blank">soothing Ambient sounds</a>.</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>All lights go dim <em>including computer monitors</em>!
<a href="https://justgetflux.com/" target="_blank">f.lux</a> is a great
program for that. It’s designed to start at sunset during your time zone,
but for my odd sleep schedule, I get past that by hitting <code class="highlighter-rouge">Alt-PgDwn</code> a
couple of times.</p>
</li>
</ul>
</li>
<li>
<p>Those first couple of weeks, it would take a few moments to remember my
bedtime. I also found myself wanting to keep track of the time
around the world so that I would know which webcams to pull up. It would be
nice to glance at an app on my phone lock-screen to see the schedule
and world clock. However, I can’t find any, and not having written an app
myself yet, I do the next best thing. I put a picture of the calendar on my
lock-screen, and I script a <a target="_blank" href="http://arkadianriver.github.io/sleepshift">web page with the world
clock</a> to keep open on one of my monitors. (What’s displayed above.)</p>
</li>
</ul>
<p>Now, it’s been many weeks, and I’ve been doing great—feeling well rested and
getting lots of work done.</p>
<h2 id="social-life">Social life</h2>
<p>Did you notice the Friday and Saturday nights on the schedule? Up all night. If
only I had thought of this when I was in my 20s! But, otherwise, if you’re a
social person, this probably isn’t for you. There’s not much room for socializing
with local family and friends. But mine all know I’m kind of a recluse, so
spending just Friday and Saturday evenings with them works pretty well.</p>
<p>I do, however, get plenty of time to play
<a href="http://www.elitedangerous.com" target="_blank">Elite: Dangerous</a>
on weekends while UK fans of the game are also playing. :O)</p>
Fri, 19 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0800http://arkadianriver.com/topics/28-hour-days/
http://arkadianriver.com/topics/28-hour-days/featuredtopics28-hour-daysWriting sample (internal)<h5>Summary</h5>
<p>The documentation production system we use has many dependencies,
and installing and configuring it is a long process. Our wiki contained
bits and pieces of the tasks required to set up a development or production
environment. I took those bits and pieces and test installed the system
in various configurations so that I could create this single more cohesive
set of instructions. This single document is used by both our development
team and by outside IBM organizations that run their own installation of
our system. Along with the instructions, I provided a few scripts to
create and populate the database and to write some configuration files.</p>
<table><tr><td align="center"><a target="_blank" href="/unique/vanguard_setup.html"
>Link to sample: "Setting Up Vanguard for Production"</a><br
/>(sensitive information is blanked out)</td></tr></table>
Mon, 01 Feb 2016 00:00:00 -0800http://arkadianriver.com/works/writingsample2.html
http://arkadianriver.com/works/writingsample2.htmlMarkdownTask orientationworksWriting sample and content design<h4 id="summary">Summary</h4>
<p>In 2013, IBM® InfoSphere® Information Server released its Data Click component
with InfoSphere BigInsights™. I was responsible for the installation information.
To ease the installation experience as much as possible for a new audience, I reduced
the amount of information from 37 topics to one 15 step topic, with optional <em>learn more</em>
references. Also, using an IBM XML schema, I replaced many of the planning topics with an
introductory interactive model that I designed and implemented, fully accessible and
translated.</p>
<p>View the topic: <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgecenter/SSPT3X_2.1.2/com.ibm.swg.im.iis.productization.iisinfsv.install.doc/topics/wsisinst_quick_install.html">Installing
IBM InfoSphere Data Click</a></p>
Wed, 30 Oct 2013 00:00:00 -0700http://arkadianriver.com/works/writingsample1.html
http://arkadianriver.com/works/writingsample1.htmlDITAIBM IMXMLGraphic DesignAgileContent DesignworksDITA production (department)<h4 id="summary">Summary</h4>
<p>Developing reusable documentation components for large middleware software products
requires an effective content management and build workflow. To author and maintain the
many thousands of topics, writers depend on the tests and controls of the workflow.</p>
<p>As we all know, when such a workflow lacks automation, the burden of these controls falls
on a few people who are subject to human error.</p>
<p>To alleviate that burden, I designed and developed a web application and automation around
our existing build tools. I developed the web application with the quality control measures
and usability features desired by writers and translators.</p>
<p>The system provided nightly full builds and incremental delta builds, building
every few hours and only when the system discovered files had changed in the source control
system. A colleague further enhanced the system by adding a build button so that writers could
kick off incremental builds on demand.</p>
<p>Despite its many features, it was remarkably easy to maintain because of its thorough
documentation and modular design, with a series of Ant macros driving perl routines
that interact with the model XML and SQL data through custom perl modules.</p>
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Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0700http://arkadianriver.com/works/dita-production.html
http://arkadianriver.com/works/dita-production.htmlPerlPHPAntXMLXSLMySQLEclipseJavaScriptworksMessage Reference Guide: a workflow<h4 id="summary">Summary</h4>
<p>Development and documentation organizations must work closely to ensure information
is both timely and accurate. Message information is a classic case of the kind of
information that grows quickly and requires a consistent and meticulous workflow.
Automation is the best way to ensure nothing falls through the cracks.</p>
<p>For the IBM DB2 Migration Toolkit, I created such a workflow with a little
Perl script and the content reference capability of DITA.</p>
<ol>
<li>
<p>Development adds and deletes messages in the message catalog as they need them.
They initially write a long description directly in the catalog
(a Java properties file).</p>
<div class="language-properties highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="c"># ...
</span><span class="py">msg.15.category</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">20</span>
<span class="py">msg.15.num</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">18</span>
<span class="py">msg.15.short</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">Possible ambiguous column reference: {0}</span>
<span class="py">msg.15.long</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">This column occurs in more than one table in the from clause (or more </span><span class="se">\
</span><span class="s">than once as a column heading in the select list for an order by clause). The </span><span class="se">\
</span><span class="s">translation may cause an error in DB2 UDB. </span><span class="se">\
</span><span class="s">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="../Docs/instmts.html"&gt;More information&lt;/a&gt;</span>
<span class="py">msg.15.warning</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">false</span>
<span class="py">msg.15.parm.count</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">1</span>
<span class="py">msg.15.parm.0</span><span class="p">=</span><span class="s">&lt;column name&gt;</span>
<span class="c"># ...
</span></code></pre>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<p>In the documentation build, the Perl script extracts the message catalogs, checks to
see if there are new messages and generates the updated DITA library of short messages.</p>
<div class="language-xml highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="cp">&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?&gt;</span>
<span class="cp">&lt;!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//IBM//DTD DITA IBM Topic//EN"
"ibm-topic.dtd"&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;topic</span> <span class="na">id=</span><span class="s">"msg"</span> <span class="na">xml:lang=</span><span class="s">"en-us"</span><span class="nt">&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;title&gt;</span>Message phrase library<span class="nt">&lt;/title&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;body&gt;</span>
...
<span class="nt">&lt;p&gt;&lt;ph</span> <span class="na">id=</span><span class="s">"sdMTKI0018"</span><span class="nt">&gt;&lt;xref</span> <span class="na">href=</span><span class="s">"../ref/errorwarn.dita"</span> <span class="na">type=</span><span class="s">"concept"</span>
<span class="nt">&gt;</span>Input Script Error<span class="nt">&lt;/xref&gt;</span>: Possible ambiguous column reference: <span class="ni">&amp;lt;</span>column name&gt;<span class="nt">&lt;/ph&gt;&lt;/p&gt;</span>
...
<span class="nt">&lt;/body&gt;&lt;/topic&gt;</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
<p>For new messages, it generates new DITA message topics that contain references to the
short messages and the development-provided long descriptions.</p>
<div class="language-xml highlighter-rouge"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="cp">&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;</span>
<span class="cp">&lt;!DOCTYPE reference PUBLIC "-//IBM//DTD DITA IBM Reference//EN"
"ibm-reference.dtd"&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;reference</span> <span class="na">id=</span><span class="s">"MTKI0018"</span> <span class="na">xml:lang=</span><span class="s">"en-us"</span><span class="nt">&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;title&gt;</span>MTKI0018<span class="nt">&lt;/title&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;shortdesc</span> <span class="na">outputclass=</span><span class="s">"msgph"</span><span class="nt">&gt;&lt;ph</span> <span class="na">conref=</span><span class="s">"msgph.dita#msg/sdMTKI0018"</span><span class="nt">&gt;&lt;/ph&gt;&lt;/shortdesc&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;refbody&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;section&gt;&lt;title&gt;</span>Description<span class="nt">&lt;/title&gt;</span> Either this column occurs in more than one table
in the FROM clause, or it occurs more than once as a column heading in the SELECT list
of an ORDER BY clause. The translation might cause an error in <span class="nt">&lt;tm</span> <span class="na">tmclass=</span><span class="s">"ibm"</span>
<span class="na">tmowner=</span><span class="s">"IBM Corporation"</span> <span class="na">tmtype=</span><span class="s">"reg"</span> <span class="na">trademark=</span><span class="s">"DB2"</span><span class="nt">&gt;</span>DB2<span class="nt">&lt;/tm&gt;</span> UDB.<span class="nt">&lt;/section&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;/refbody&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;related-links&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;link</span> <span class="na">href=</span><span class="s">"../infx/statements.dita"</span> <span class="na">type=</span><span class="s">"reference"</span><span class="nt">&gt;&lt;/link&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;/related-links&gt;</span>
<span class="nt">&lt;/reference&gt;</span>
</code></pre>
</div>
</li>
<li>
<p>The writer then copyedits these newly created DITA message files and the corresponding
short messages in the catalog and checks them all into source control.</p>
</li>
</ol>
Mon, 18 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0800http://arkadianriver.com/works/java-message-reference.html
http://arkadianriver.com/works/java-message-reference.htmlDITAPerlJavaHelpMessage referenceworksAnd, we're back<!-- BEGIN BLOGBODY SECTIONS -->
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<h3 class="title">Departure</h3>
<p><span class="image right"><img src="/unique/scans/kensington_tix.jpg" alt="" /></span>The next morning we get all ready to go. Then mom realizes, as I am about to go out and
get bread, we are still on Continental European time. So, we’re an hour early getting
ready.
I wait until 08:00, when the shops open on Sunday, to get bread. We have a bread,
honey, and cheese breakfast. We check out and are off to the Gloucester station,
where mom heads toward Victoria to take the Gatwick express as we head back
to Heathrow. Bye mom! :-(</p>
<p>We all make it to our airports just fine. But Kaitlyn and I arrive at the
airport just one hour before take-off. Virgin airlines
has a one hour cutoff. Luckily I
ask about our position in the huge check-in line and they put us in the
must-check-in-quickly line.
We rush through baggage check and are directed to the must-pass-through-security-quickly
line. Even so, it takes about 20 minutes to get through security.</p>
<p>While we were in Venice, there was
the incedent of the 21 terrorists caught leaving from London to the US. Since then,
the security has lightened up a little, so we are able to take carry-ons.
But I take only the laptop
on board. Kaitlyn travels light, too. The only things we are not allowed to take are
liquids and cosmetics—or so we think. There is a security check not only at the
regular checkpoint, but also at the gate. It is at the gate where they do the full check
and confiscate Kaitlyn’s lactose intolerance
pills because they are non-prescription. It’s unfortunate, because they serve ice
cream on the plane later.</p>
<p>The plane ride is great. Both our video monitors work perfectly. And, because the
flight is daytime the entire way back, we decide to stay up and have a 5 or 6 movie
marathon.</p>
<p>We arrive and don’t realize that Susan is waiting outside in the car until Kaitlyn
calls Cynthia. All is well; Susan graciously gives me a ride home; Kaitlyn has her ticket
back to Seattle from San Jose; and I think she even gets a chance to see April before
she flies home.</p>
<p>That’s it. It’s over. Darn it all. I can’t wait to do it another time!!!</p>
<p><b>Cheers!</b></p>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal10.html">10</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal11.html">11</a></span></td>
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<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal18.html">18</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal19.html">19</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal20.html">20</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal21.html">21</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal22.html">22</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal23.html">23</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal24.html">24</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal25.html">25</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal26.html">26</a></span></td>
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<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar"><b>27</b></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
28</span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
29</span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
30</span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
31</span></td>
<td class="cal0" align="center"><span class="calendar">
&nbsp;</span></td>
<td class="cal0" align="center"><span class="calendar">
&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
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By destination
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal04.html#Winchester">Chateau Dantressangle</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal05.html#London">London</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal07.html#Paris">Paris</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal10.html#Rome">Rome</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal11.html#Venice">Venice</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal13.html#Vienna">Vienna</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal14.html#Innsbruck">Innsbruck</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal15.html#Fuessen">Füssen</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal16.html#Rothenburg">Rothenburg o.d.T.</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal17.html#Frankfurt">Frankfurt</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal19.html#Rhein">Rhein tour</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal19.html#Koeln">Köln</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal23.html#Duesseldorf">Düsseldorf</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal26.html#London">London again</a><br />
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Sun, 27 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0700http://arkadianriver.com/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal27.html
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<div class="row">
<div class="8u 12u$(small)">
<h3 class="title">Good-bye :-(</h3>
<p>We dress up, clean up, pack up, and head out. Andrea takes us to the airport with
Amelie following. We go around twice because they are doing construction and mark
the turns poorly. We luckily park at the correct terminal and have arrived in plenty of
time.</p>
<p>We eat at a restaurant in the airport, one that Victoria is very familiar with. She
unfortunately knows it as the place where she has to say good-bye to people.
<a name="London"></a>When she
realizes this fact, the poor girl can’t stop crying. Then when Andrea takes the last
pictures and we walk through security, it hits little Victoria what is happening.
It’s very sad. We find out later from Andrea how much Victoria misses Kaitlyn.</p>
<h3 class="title">British Airways, I presume?</h3>
<p>Yes, we are flying British Airways. The entire plane seems to be business class.
The seats have extra room and all the arm rests have little drink counters.</p>
<p><span class="image right"><img src="/unique/scans/pounds.jpg" alt="" /></span>We arrive in London Heathrow. Time for different money at the ATM.
I checked the night before on Richard’s computer, and noticed that
the Underground goes all the way out to the Heathrow airport. So, we take
the tube instead of a taxi this time, especially since we’re not going all the way into
London proper,
but are instead getting off at the Gloucester (pronounced glau-shter) station in South
Kensington. We are staying at the Citadines hotel.</p>
<p>When we arrive after the long subway ride, we head in the correct direction, but,
unsure of the landmarks, we ask for guidance from an elderly couple who point us
back into the other direction. After realizing things don’t look right, I ask a man
in a car for guidance. He has a <i>Tom-Tom</i> navigation system. He puts in the address
and it points
back to where we were. He kindly offers to give us a ride, and.. I accept. Okay, maybe
not too bright with two ladies along with me, but he looks trustworthy (and harmless).
He is.. refuses any payment.. a good samaritan.</p>
<p>The hotel doesn’t have our reservation. Why? After 15 minutes, the lady realizes it is
under ‘Saircloth’. As often as that happens to me, I should have known to tell her to look
under ‘S’. No big deal. It is a really nice hotel, with a kitchen and dishwasher.</p>
<p>There are many very nice restaurants in the area, all very pricey. We decide instead to
eat at the pub on the corner. Reasonable prices and comfortable. After dinner, we go to the
market and get breakfast goodies for the next day (except the bread, which in hindsight
I should have gotten).</p>
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<th class="cal" abbr="Monday" align="center"><span class="calendar">Mon</span></th>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/">before departure</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal03.html">3</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal04.html">4</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal10.html">10</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal11.html">11</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal12.html">12</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal13.html">13</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal14.html">14</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal16.html">16</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal17.html">17</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal18.html">18</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal19.html">19</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal20.html">20</a></span></td>
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<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal21.html">21</a></span></td>
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<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal24.html">24</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal25.html">25</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar"><b>26</b></span></td>
</tr><tr>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal27.html">27</a></span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
28</span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
29</span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
30</span></td>
<td class="cal" align="center"><span class="calendar">
31</span></td>
<td class="cal0" align="center"><span class="calendar">
&nbsp;</span></td>
<td class="cal0" align="center"><span class="calendar">
&nbsp;</span></td></tr>
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<div class="sidetitle">
By destination
</div>
<div class="side">
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal04.html#Winchester">Chateau Dantressangle</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal05.html#London">London</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal07.html#Paris">Paris</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal10.html#Rome">Rome</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal11.html#Venice">Venice</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal13.html#Vienna">Vienna</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal14.html#Innsbruck">Innsbruck</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal15.html#Fuessen">Füssen</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal16.html#Rothenburg">Rothenburg o.d.T.</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal17.html#Frankfurt">Frankfurt</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal19.html#Rhein">Rhein tour</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal19.html#Koeln">Köln</a><br />
<a href="/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal23.html#Duesseldorf">Düsseldorf</a><br />
<span style="font-family:verdana,arial,sans-serif;color:#333;font-size:x-small;font-weight:bold;padding:2px;margin:0;">London again</span><br />
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Sat, 26 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0700http://arkadianriver.com/topics/eurotrip-2006/journal26.html
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